Fresh off culture change, Paulus now builds upon his foundation at Niagara

 

Greg Paulus vaulted Niagara into middle of MAAC last season, and continues to build winning culture. (Photo by The Buffalo News)

For all the attention Carmen Maciariello and Shaheen Holloway received in leading Siena and Saint Peter’s to the top of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference last season, the job Greg Paulus did at Niagara is equally worthy of such plaudits.

Thrust into the head coaching chair two weeks before the season tipped off after Patrick Beilein suddenly stepped down, the former Mike Krzyzewski point guard set to work building a program that would compete and establish itself as a force to be reckoned with. Five months later, the Purple Eagles went from a team predicted to finish near the MAAC cellar to one who narrowly missed a top-five finish in the league, by no accident for its precocious young leader.

“For us, there were so many positive steps taken throughout the year,” Paulus recalled, highlighting a successful first campaign at Niagara that was halted by COVID-19 hours before he and his team were to face Rider in the MAAC tournament quarterfinals. “I wanted to make sure that when we broke Atlantic City, our team understood the steps forward that we took as a program, as a team, and as individuals. We met about that, we shared some of those things, and we’re certainly really proud of how our team handled the different things that came up throughout the year, and also how we handled the end of the year.”

“The growth that each of us made within the program — from where we were every week, from month to week to day — I thought we continued to develop and get better throughout the course of the season. We had certain standards in our program from on campus to the classroom, to how we want to play and who we want to become, and I thought we made strides in those areas.”

Niagara’s four-out, one-in offense is a unique wrinkle to prepare for, even in a guard-heavy league such as the MAAC, and junior Marcus Hammond — a preseason first team all-conference selection — will be the focal point of a unit whose core returns to advance a progression whose nascent stages offered encouraging signs not seen on Monteagle Ridge since Joe Mihalich left for Hofstra in 2013.

“He makes the right plays,” Paulus said of the former Cardozo standout. “He can score for himself and he can also create for others, and he’s a guy that — through his work and through his preparation — had a lot of experience from his freshman year to his sophomore year to where he was putting himself in situations where he had a lot of attention from opponents, and I thought he handled it really well. He’s going to have an opportunity to continue to make the right plays for us, and we have a lot of confidence in him.”

Hammond’s supporting cast is also a group of burgeoning playmakers that will undoubtedly put Paulus even more at ease. Niagara has yet to receive word of a waiver for Longwood transfer Jordan Cintron, but the Purple Eagles are still talented without him. Junior guard Raheem Solomon returns as Hammond's wing man alongside the likes of Justin Roberts, Shandon Brown, Greg Kuakumensah and Kobi Nwandu, a Division II transfer from Le Moyne College whom Paulus believes can make an immediate impact.

“We’re at our best when we’re playing connected, playing together, playing for each other,” Paulus reaffirmed. “So for us, the other guys — whether they’re returning or are new to the program — we need them to step up and play to our strengths. When we’re making those connected plays, that’s when we’re at our best on both ends of the floor.”

The concept of team harmony is a fine line to master, and even rarer when it is preached so intimately and broken down meticulously the way Paulus has done through just 13 months on the job. And at a tender age of 34, the coach is learning on the fly just as his players are.

“I was actually talking about this with Coach K the other day: The different situations that you go through as a player, different experiences that you have as an assistant coach, as those situations arise, you’re able to navigate whatever the situation may be,” said Paulus about what he learned in his maiden head coaching voyage. “There might be something that happened last year and you’re saying, ‘Oh, I remember this when I was at Louisville and this could really help us here,’ or, ‘Hey, we went through something similar at Ohio State and this could be beneficial for our team.’”

“I’ve been very grateful to have elite coaches and mentors that I’ve been able to learn from throughout the course of my journey, but to me, it’s important to trust your instincts, trust your preparation, be able to have that relationship with your players and connect with them, and understanding what they’re going through. That was our biggest focus, investing the time and energy in those relationships and ultimately working through it together.”

When one watched Niagara last season, the connection on both a physical and personal level was evident, the first true sign of a culture change. Now, the time has come to cultivate something deeper, something stronger.

“I think we’re still looking to create that identity with this team,” Paulus admitted. “Every team, every season is different, and takes on a different way because roles change, you’re adding different personnel and teammates. For us, especially not having a summer, we’re really trying to work on the fundamentals and build up to it. We don’t want to skip steps, but some of those standards that we talked about creating in year one, we’re still creating those standards and who we want to be. Certainly, the steps we took in year one, we want to be sure we continue to build from the ground up and make sure that we don’t skip steps as we go into year two.”